


Breather

by kageygirl



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: sga_flashfic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-06
Updated: 2005-04-06
Packaged: 2017-10-22 00:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kageygirl/pseuds/kageygirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stay down, and sometimes they stop hitting you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breather

**Author's Note:**

> For the "38 minutes" challenge at sga_flashfic.

John landed heavily on his forearms, the impact jarring damn near everything in his upper body. The alternative would have been to meet the ground with his face, though, so he was vaguely proud of himself for avoiding that.

His ears were ringing, and the world spun in crazy circles. _Stay down_ , a voice in his head said. _Stay down stay down stay down_ , and it almost amused him that the voice sounded like Rodney. But since Rodney and Teyla and Ford were still standing behind him, still targets in their own rights, he didn't have the luxury of being amused.

There was blood in his mouth--heavy, coppery taste. Split lip, he thought, instead of loose teeth, though the punch had been hard enough to cause either one. His whole face was a mass of pain, so he couldn't pin it down. He was panting, and a warm drop landed on the back of one of his bound hands, bright and vivid in the swirling world he was currently in.

He wanted to stay down, he really did. "Stay down," he'd told Rodney once, when they'd been talking somewhere long ago and far away, and he couldn't remember how they'd gotten to that conversational pass. "Stay down, and sometimes they stop hitting you."

Rodney had snorted and rolled his eyes. "As if I hadn't learned _that_ a long time ago."

It would be so easy, to just go with the spinning and let the world slide away and let that splash of redness fade and dim and blend into the beckoning darkness at the edges of his vision.

Teyla was better at negotiating than he was, and when that failed, even unarmed--hell, maybe especially unarmed--she could kick more ass than he could on his best day. And this was pretty far from his best day. Ford, too, not to mention Ford's unmitigated glee with weaponry, which might have been disturbing if Ford weren't on John's side. As for Rodney--well, anything technical, Rodney could unravel, and keep up John's share of smart remarks, plus his own, while he was at it.

His team didn't need him, really. He could pass out for a while, and they'd be fine without him, wouldn't they? And if he passed out, that big son of a bitch would stop hitting him in the meantime.

 _No_ , and that sounded like Sumner, which wasn't anywhere near as disturbing as it should have been. _Get up, you asshole_.

If they stopped hitting him, they might start on one of the others.

And if he was out, there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it.

It was as simple as that.

 _Okay, break time's over_ , and in his head, that didn't sound like anyone but John himself. _Time to get back to the real world_.

John got his legs under him, bared his teeth in what was nothing like a smile, and stood up.


End file.
